


Summer Heat

by eugyne (AreteNike)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff and Humor, Illustrated, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Texting, these boys are idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 10:59:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17099321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreteNike/pseuds/eugyne
Summary: Despite having mutual friends and studying at the same college, Lance and Keith have never met. It's obviously just another weird coincidence that they both keep sensing their soulmate nearby at their summer jobs...(Written for the TEOU Klance zine that fell through.)





	Summer Heat

**Author's Note:**

> [so heres what happened to the zine ig](http://tootsonnewts.tumblr.com/post/181169985035/a-final-update)
> 
> art is by [coral niu!](http://coral-niu.tumblr.com/)

At this point, when his mark warms, Lance barely reacts. Which is not to say he doesn't look around, of course; it's just that, with all the boats going by, with all the owners coming in and out of the office by the gas dock, with all the other dockhands running around and the busy parking lot at the water's edge and the busier restaurant just beyond it, especially at this time of night...

Well, finding his soulmate would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Or a fish in the ocean, as the case may be.

So he looks around, but he doesn't hop off the boat he's filling up with diesel right now. He's here for the whole summer. He's got time.

And anyway, his soulmate is a regular around here, too. They'll meet sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.

Tank full, he cleans up and hops back down onto the dock. The owner heads into the office to pay and Lance takes the moment to take out his phone and open the group chat. He types out, "chum in the water but no shark sightings yet," and waits; it only takes a minute for the responses to come in.

 

 **pidgeot:** thats your worst metaphor yet

 **Hunkydew:** agreed.

 **Hunkydew:** can we go back to bird calls? that was better.

 **Lancelot:** laaame im being thematic, okay?

 **keith:** what are you talking about?

 **Shiro:** His soulmark, I assume.

 **pidgeot:** again

 **keith:** oh

 **keith:** mine too, i think. it might just be hot in here

 **pidgeot:** sgdfdgs

 **Hunkydew:** how do you mistake one for the other???

 **keith:** you'd be surprised

 **Lancelot:** ngl i feel

 **keith:** do you get phantom warmth too lance

 **Lancelot:** YES

 **Lancelot:** sometimes i think mine is warm but then i realize im just like leaning on a hot railing

 **pidgeot:** oh my god lance

 **Shiro:** SMH

 **Hunkydew:** wow, you guys.

 **pidgeot:** *are disasters

 **keith:** probably

 **keith:** i have to get back to work, bye

 **Lancelot:** same

 **Hunkydew:** keep us updated guys!!

 

Lance puts his phone back in his pocket and stretches. He's only got an hour or so left in his shift, but the first round of daytrippers are just starting to come in to dock, so it'll be busy right up until he's off.

And so it's not until he leaves the marina for the day that he checks his phone. His mark is warm as he walks by Tugboats, but it's the dinner rush and he already knows going in there to look would be a futile effort; more pressing are the dozens of notifications he's managed to gather in the past hour. He sends off a quick, "you guys have been noisy without me," before scrolling up.

 

 **keith:** finally on break

 **pidgeot:** where do you even work

 **keith:** restaurant :/

 **pidgeot:** you?? in customer service??

 **keith:** i'm too busy/tired to get pissed at anyone, so it works out

 **pidgeot:** incredible

 **Shiro:** You really shouldn't be getting mad at work anyway.

 **keith:** shiro, you have no idea how terrible people are

 **pidgeot:** lmao

 **keith:** especially the rich yacht owners

 **Shiro:** How do you know they own yachts?

 **keith:** well there's a marina right outside the fucking window

 **keith:** and they all dress exactly the same?

 **keith:** you'd think with that much money they'd go somewhere better than a place called tugboats

 

Lance stops short and glances over his shoulder, like he doesn't pass this restaurant every day. But it's definitely called Tugboats, and it's _definitely_ right next to a marina. Considering he and Keith go to the same school, have the same friends, and still have never managed to actually meet in person, this is too much of a coincidence to _not_ be true. He skips over the rest of the chat to respond.

 

 **Lancelot:** WAIT KEITH YOU WORK AT TUGBOATS??

 **Shiro:** He's working right now. Do you know the place?

 **Lancelot:** i know A tugboats

 **Lancelot:** its right next to the marina where i work SO LIKE??

 **Hunkydew:** omg are you saying you guys will finally meet?

 **Lancelot:** judging by past experience? lol

 **Shiro:** That's quite the coincidence.

 **Hunkydew:** no listen, you have to make plans, okay?

 **Hunkydew:** if you're literally working at the same place you HAVE to meet.

 **Hunkydew:** no excuses!

 **Shiro:** I'm surprised they haven't met already. The summer is already half over.

 **Lancelot:** shiro, this is us

 **Lancelot:** weve been going to the same school for two years and have the same group of friends and have never met face to face

 **Hunkydew:** which is why you have to make plans!

 **Lancelot:** itd be kind of weird without all of you guys there

 **Shiro:** That's just an excuse.

 **Lancelot:** whatever??

 **Lancelot:** i gotta go home now byeee

 **Shiro:** You two don't get on so badly anymore, there's no reason to avoid it.

 **Shiro:** Lance, come on.

 

"Nope," Lance mutters, putting his phone away to walk. It's not that Shiro's _wrong_ necessarily, but... he wants at least Hunk or Pidge to be there when they meet. They still need a buffer. Probably.

Or he's just blowing things out of proportion in his head, but either way, he wants the moral support.

He ends up not checking his phone again until after dinner, but when he does, there's a few more messages in the group chat... and one private one from Keith. Which is weird, because they never really talk to each other outside the group chat—which is why he opens it first.

 

 **keith:** you really work at the marina?

 **Lancelot:** yeah dude

 **Lancelot:** i was mostly at the gas dock today

 **keith:** geez, i probably saw you without realizing

 **Lancelot:** i was the hot one fyi

 **keith:** i didn't look that closely

 **Lancelot:** >:o

 **Lancelot:** wait did you meet your soulmate? i didn't read the whole chat

 **keith:** no, not this time

 **keith:** i think they're a regular though

 **Lancelot:** mine too

 **Lancelot:** its always when im close to shore

 **keith:** there's just too many people

 **Lancelot:** EXACTLY!!

 **Lancelot:** hunks always like "go look for them!" and im like

 **Lancelot:** hunk you have NO IDEA

 **keith:** we have like a thousand people come in every day, and that's JUST the restaurant

 **Lancelot:** there are so many boats here

 **Lancelot:** so many

 **keith:** and so many rich people with nothing better to do

 **Lancelot:** ngl i wouldnt mind if my sm is a yacht owner

 **Lancelot:** they can pay off my loans lmao

 **keith:** mood

 

They keep chatting intermittently all that evening, mostly about their jobs but eventually about other things, too. By the time Lance goes to bed, he's starting to think maybe meeting up wouldn't be so bad.

...Not that he'd admit it to their friends, but if Keith suggests it, well, maybe he'll say yes.

So he's only mildly surprised to wake up to an invitation to "get drinks or something" next time they both have the evening off. He shoots off a quick "sure, when are you free?" and resolves to tell no one until it's over and done with.

(He finds out during his lunch break that he's been called out in the group chat by Shiro, so, so much for that.)

The day passes. His mark warms but he sees no one. He and Keith agree to meet Thursday night.

Wednesday, he goes grocery shopping.

It takes him a minute to realize his mark has warmed when he enters the store, if only because it's so out of context from usual. More than that, as he focuses on it and moves further into the store, it's not just warm—it's _burning._ Which can only mean his soulmate is _here._

In the fucking grocery store.

This really figures, Lance decides, clutching his burning forearm and making a beeline for the produce section. It really figures that out of all the times they _could_ have met, all the docks at sunset, all the sunlit waterfront places—hell, even the parking lot by Tugboats would have been more romantic than getting misted along with the lettuce under the cold fluorescence of the grocery store.

This really figures, Lance decides, when he almost walks into another man clutching his shoulder with one hand and a bag of apples with the other and realizes he knows his face.

"I am... so mad about this," Lance says slowly, without thinking.

"What?" Keith asks, and his voice is deeper than Lance had expected.

 

"Two years. Countless opportunities. We made _plans._ For _tomorrow,_ even!" Lance gestures at the broccoli next to them. "And this is where we finally meet?"

Keith frowns at the broccoli in turn. "Okay, but, would the gas dock really have been better?"

"Walk twenty feet up or down the dock and it's not the gas dock anymore. Walk twenty feet up or down this aisle, it's still the grocery store."

Keith meets his eyes, and a little smirk quirks his lips. "We could go stand in the florist's section if that would make you feel better?"

Well, shit. Lance lets out a long breath.

"Okay, you know what, let's start over," he says, because this isn't going how he imagined it would and, location aside, that's partly his fault. He holds out his hand. "Hi, Keith."

Keith has a full-on smile now. "Hi, Lance," he says, and shakes his hand. Lance's mark finally stops burning.

"Cool," Lance says. "Okay. Yeah."

"Yeah?" Keith lifts an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Lance says decisively. "This is—this is good. I mean, I'm a little disappointed you _don't_ own a yacht—"

Keith snorts.

"—but we have the same friends and everything, so like. It's not as big of a mess as it could be. Just a totally wild coincidence."

"Right," Keith says. "Pidge is gonna make fun of us for not realizing."

"Everyone's gonna make fun of us."

"That's true."

"Okay, but, the weird thing is—I never felt my mark warm up at school?"

"I did—did you live on frat row last year?"

"Yeah? But I still never felt it?"

"I went by there for my morning run." Keith pauses. "At seven a.m."

"Are you telling me I _slept through it every time_ —"

"Excuse me?" someone says, which is when they realize in unison they're blocking access to the broccoli. They both quickly shuffle out of the way, and the moment is broken—they're in the grocery store again, fluorescent lights and all.

"I should probably go buy this stuff," Keith says after a moment, glancing back at his full cart. "We're still on for drinks, right?"

"Yeah! Yeah, of course," Lance says. "Um. See ya...?"

"See you," Keith says. Lance fidgets. He doesn't really want to just leave it like this, but it's awkward enough as is, but goddamn, this is his _soulmate..._

Before he can talk himself out of it, he leans in, presses a very hasty kiss to Keith's cheek, blurts, "Bye!" and all but books it out of the produce section. He doesn't slow until he reaches the dairy section, and finally stops in front of the ice cream, gently banging his forehead against the glass door and silently berating himself.

He definitely made this even more awkward.

And holy shit, Keith is his soulmate.

This really, _really_ figures, he mentally tells the cookie dough ice cream inches from his nose.

Oh god, _soulmates._

He ends up buying the ice cream and little else, and has it for dinner, too. The all-caps keysmash he sends to the group chat prompts a lot of questions, but his eyes are fixed on only one response.

 

 **keith:** same

 

Same. Keith feels the same. _Soulmates._

He falls asleep over the ice cream, but at least when he wakes up it's sunk in a little. So has the ice cream, into his hair (gross), but at least a shower takes care of that.

And tonight he's getting drinks with Keith, his soulmate, and it's going to be _awesome._

The day passes in a blur. He has a morning shift at the marina but he'd be hard pressed to remember the details of it; then it's home again to eat and shower again and agonize over an outfit for a while until he's out of time and out the door.

Keith greets him with a smile and suddenly Lance can't remember what he was so anxious about. Or why he never noticed how damn handsome Keith is—photos don't do him justice.

"Hey," says Lance.

"Hey," says Keith. "Wanna head in?"

"Wait, we need to commemorate the moment." Lance fumbles his phone out of his pocket. "I mean, we still haven't told the others. And like. This is a big moment."

"Technically the big moment already happened," Keith teases, but he doesn't resist when Lance loops an arm around his waist to pull him to his side.

"Shh. Just smile for the camera," Lance says, holding up his phone. And Keith does—until Lance's thumb slides over the shutter button, and then he turns his head and kisses his cheek right as Lance takes the picture. The app clicks.

The photo shows Keith smiling into the kiss, and Lance absolutely floored.

"Warn a guy next time!" Lance huffs, feeling his face heat up, but Keith just laughs.

"Post it already and let's go," he says, sliding out of Lance's grip to take his hand and tug him towards the bar. He lets him; the picture isn't actually that bad. Really, it's cute, if a little embarrassing. He uploads it to Instagram with a quick caption—"tfw you meet your soulmate"—and tucks his phone away again.

And the screaming they find in the group chat, hours later when they stumble out of the bar, tipsy and laughing? Worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> oh i still love this one even after months...... catch me writing soulmate aus for the rest of my days
> 
> find me [@maternalcube](http://maternalcube.tumblr.com/)


End file.
